Life · Stop Plastic

Just Don’t

Plastic madness even in the veggie department.

Today, instead of the usual photo, I need to get something off my chest. Those who come here often that I hate plastic in every form and shape. I avoid it whenever I can. Plastic was invented in 1907 by a guy named Leo Hendrik Baekeland. I’m sure he just wanted to invent something useful and he had no idea that it would come back around and bite us all in our back parts. Plastic is very cheap to make, that is why all the companies use it whenever they can even when it is not needed. Yes, it might be very convenient to put mushrooms in a plastic box and wrap it in even more plastic but it is, pardon my french, fucking nonsense. There is no need for that. Same for the chillies, peppers, salads and all other veggies and fruit. I don’t buy plastic wrapped stuff, instead I go for loose wares or stuff that is stored in paper boxes. Then there are all the drinks that come in plastic bottles. Those are the worst! In the past they all used glass bottles. Yes, they where quite heavy and they where expensive to maintain (for the company) but they didn’t do harm to our planet. The plastic bottles they use nowadays are dirt cheap and they don’t have to deal with the empty bottles anymore, no, those float around in our oceans or form mountains somewhere. All just for maximum profit for Coke & Co.

It’s not only the packaging that causes the problems, no there is much more. Since plastic is so cheap to make they produce everything from plastic. Yes, that plastic lunchbox looks sooo cute and all, but it will not last long and it will damage our environment because it’s not only the one box you just bought, it’s million of those boxes and the all will break after 3 month and they all will land in the garbage. Plastic does not rot, it will not go away. It might get very very tiny over a long time but even then it will not go away. I’m sure you heard of micro plastic by now. Did you know, they found micro plastic in human bloodstreams? Can you imagine what that does to your body? Or to the bodies of your kids and grand kids? To the wild life?

And then there are these smarty pants who say we “recycle” plastic. You can recycle glass and paper, but you can not recycles plastic. Remember those dimwits in Kuwait who announced that they had turned plastic into t-shirts. Ya, nice try, it’s still plastic. You can not change the form and say it’s something different, shit stays shit, regardless in what form or shape, and honestly, would you want to wear plastic?

So what can we do? Well, I try to avoid plastic as much as I can. I do not buy veggies or fruit that is wrapped in plastic. I don’t buy drinks in plastic bottles. For house hold items you can find everything made from natural materials. From stitch markers (I have metal stitch markers), over metal lunch boxes, glass bowls, glass containers, containers made from bamboo. You can replace every plastic item with a much better, non harmful, natural material items. The positive side effect is that those items usually last soooo much longer then the plastic garbage.